A Bow for the Viola D'Amore

I have been asked many times what I think a viola d'amore bow ought to be. I have put on the FAQ page (http://www.violadamore.com/faq.asp) an excerpt from a player writing in 1789, in which he recommends a very long bow for the viola d'amore, half a foot longer than a violin bow! However, as my own work mostly involves early 18th century repertoire, I have, together with maker Stephen Marvin, tried to imagine what would be a most suitable viola d'amore bow for baroque repertoire. The result is below.

To the best of my knowledge there is no way to determine whether players of the early 18^th century thought of the viola d'amore as having different requirements from the violin or viola. All we have, apart from the late 18th century writer mentioned on the FAQ page,  is a picture of an early bow hanging with a viola d'amore, (with wire strings and wire frets!), in the Germanische Museum in Nurnberg, (reproduced in the May 2001 issue of The Strad).

I  settled, after ten years, on a long bow with a clip in frog, strong, and on the long and heavy side. A violin bow works fine on the upper four strings- often all you need in the early repertoire, but the extra weight (56 grams) of the first bow pictured below helps a great deal to make the lower strings respond with a more focused sound. The greater than usual length of 72 cm I find helps me give chords a greater than usual variety of breaks and spreads. I opted for a clip in frog  because I want to believe that the latest research might be correct; so far no problems with tensioning. Finally, some have speculated that a viola d' amore bow should have a wider spread of hair than a violin or a viola, in order to play with less pressure.

Opinion on bows has recently changed. Look for more information of the dating of the screw mechanism in the work of Dr. Robert Seletsky, whose updated article will appear soon in Early Music, and in the viol/violin bow article by Hans Reiners, in "Chelys" The Journal of the Viola da Gamba society (Britain), volume 28, 2000.

1. Viola d'amore bow - Early 18^th century, reconstruction modeled after Stradivari templates and existing later examples. Snakewood stick and frog. Stick length 72 cm fixed clip in frog. Weight with hair 56 grams
2. Viola bow - Original in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England Baroque design "long sonata bow" with late 18^th century screw mechanism. Snakewood stick and frog, fossil ivory button. Stick length 69 cm weight with hair ca 54 grams.
3. Violin bow - Late 18^th century violin version of #2, weight 49 grams
4. Violin bow - French "transitional" bow, dating from about 1780, original in a private collection. Stick is swartzia bannia(ironwood) with fossil ivory slide frog mechanism. Octagonal ivory button. Length of stick, 71 cm, weight, with hair, ca. 54 grams.

 Stephen Marvin has made bows on historical models for the violin and viol families for 25 years. He makes more than 30 different models, ranging from the 17^th century to precise modern François Tourte styles.